The Exposition internationale de la technique de l'eau de 1939 was the third specialized exposition recognized by the
Bureau International des Expositions
The Bureau international des expositions (BIE; English: International Bureau of Expositions) is an intergovernmental organization created to supervise international exhibitions (also known as expos or world expos) falling under the jurisdiction o ...
. In 1936 Georges Truffaut proposed an exposition to celebrate the completion of the
Albert Canal
The Albert Canal (, ) is a canal located in northeastern Belgium, which was named for King Albert I of Belgium. The Albert Canal connects Antwerp with Liège, and also the Meuse river with the Scheldt river. It also connects with the Dessel†...
. The exposition's theme was
water management
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...
and opened on 20 May 1939 by King
Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasi ...
. The canal itself was opened on 30 July 1939.
The exposition was situated on 70 hectares of land and 30 hectares of water on both riverbanks between the Albert Canal and the Atlas Bridge. On the site were exhibition halls, restaurants, attractions and a Meuse village with replicas of buildings from the Meuse valley. A part of the site was on land reclaimed from an unnavigable part of the
Meuse
The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...
. An aerial cableway provided a panoramic view over the site.
The exposition was scheduled to run until November 1939, but on 31 August explosives under the Val Benoit Bridge and the Ougrée Bridge were detonated by lightning, resulting in 20 fatalities and 24 injured. The explosives were placed by the Belgian Army to destroy the bridges in case of war. When
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
started the next day it was decided to close the exposition immediately.
Pavilions
Germany
The German pavilion was similar to the one in Paris two years before. The pavilion, on the left riverbank was designed by architect
Emil Fahrenkamp
Emil Fahrenkamp (November 8, 1885, Aachen – May 24, 1966, Ratingen-Breitscheid) was a German architect and professor. One of the most prominent architects of the period between the first and second World Wars, he is best known for his 1931 ...
.
Nazi Germany didn't want to spend money outside Germany. The building materials and equipment were imported from Germany and had to be transported from the Belgian-German border 35 km east of Liège. Every morning the contractors and engineers were transported from Germany by bus or lorry to the site in Liège. The whole column returned to Germany in the evening.
[Isabelle Ledoux, "L'Exposition de l'Eau - Liège 1939", in ''Art&fact n° 29. L'architecture au XXe siècle à Liège'', Liège, 2010, blz. 40-49.
]
France
The French contribution consisted of three exhibition halls on the right riverbank. The buildings designed by Allix had a surface of 8000 m
2.
References
{{List of world exhibitions
External links
Official website of the BIE
1939 in Belgium
World's fairs in Liège